Letters archive

Your report that it may be impossible to breed Australian frogs in captivity without in vitro fertilisation underestimates the potential of amphibians in captive-breeding programmes (This Week, 7 October). Many frogs, including some Australian species, have been successfully bred in captivity for several generations using conventional methods. Indeed, amphibians may be more appropriate for captive-breeding …

The article "Music for the senses" (21 October) appears based on the hoary old assumption that anything which can make waveforms can make music. This is a bit like saying that if you put paint on your body and roll around on a canvas the result is art – a tenet embraced by some, to …

The first paragraph of "The complete scientific history of the Universe" (28 October) contains the sentence, "If it hadn't been for the rise of Christianity and the destruction of classical thought, could we have reached this point in our scientific evolution a thousand years earlier?" The article goes on to cite several instances of conflict …

Your article on getting research papers published cites the case of X, who challenges the big bang theory but who has yet to submit his own rival theory for publication (Forum, 28 October). I am writing to warn X to expect rejections from many journals when he eventually submits a paper on his theory. I …

Paul Back is right that most forests are not carbon sinks because they put as much CO 2 back into the atmosphere as they take in through transpiration. Using the wood in houses and furniture can only postpone the evil day of oxidation by decades, maybe centuries (Letters, 9 September). But Back does not mention …

Ralph Estling raises the old problem of what existed prior to the big bang (Letters, 28 October). Because the big bang represents the origin of time itself, "prior" is meaningless when applied in the normal, temporal sense. However, one may still use the word prior in a logical or explanatory sense, as something more fundamental. …

In order to clarify whether or not Einstein was wrong about the relative speed of clocks (Letters, 21 October) we need to bring in the equality of inertial and gravitational mass. Take four identical clocks: one on Earth at g gravity, one on a rocket in space accelerating at g, one on a centrifuge in …

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I've followed with interest the recent correspondence (2 and 30 September and 21 October) about pigeons hitching rides on the London Underground. Those of us involved in studies of animal navigation will recall the definition of migration proposed by the late John Kennedy: "Migratory behaviour is persistent and straightened-out movement effected by the animal's own …

"Professor of peace studies" is an appointment which implies at least a possibility of bias on the subject of weapons research (Review, 21 October). Paul Rogers does a good hatchet job in his review of The Good Servant: Making Peace with the Bomb at Los Alamos, but several universities have professors of war studies, and …

About a year ago New Scientist carried an article pointing out that eating too much fat in general causes high cholesterol in the blood, and that eating cholesterol fat was no worse than any other fat since it was broken down in the stomach. Blood cholesterol is synthesised in the liver. There are other reasons …

Regular readers of New Scientist will have had a sense of déjà vu when they read Barry Fox's report on "news-on-demand" (Technology, 7 October). This news service, to be called BBC Now, will deliver 10-minute bulletins of news, sport, and so on "at ihe push of a button". Stored as a rolling loop of digital …

The assertion by Susan Wahls that "the spread of malaria cannot be stopped by chemistry" (Letters, 14 October) overlooks the elimination and the potential for eliminating the mosquito vector in countries such as Greece and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, DDT reduced cases of malaria from 2 800 000 in 1948 to just 17 in …